OpenStreetMap exists with what Gabriella Coleman calls a collaborative ethical temperament--one that values transparency, accessibility, and openness for the purpose of participation. Vibrant and open dialogue is key in encouraging and facilitating this participation. But are the doors really open to anyone? I investigate the structure and demographics of the OpenStreetMap community. Framed by established research on OpenStreetMap, specifically and open source, in general, I establish why a lack of gender and racial diversity poses significant challenges for the sustainability of our work. I then introduce OpenThreads, a toolset for the rhetorical analysis of open mailing lists. This research can serve as a guide for building future tools of interaction on our mailing lists and beyond. Scandalous photos included.

1. Changing the Ratio
of OpenStreetMap

2. Alyssa Wright
@alyssapwright

4. I believe

5. Where are we?

6. Who are we?

7. Maps as Tools of Empathy

8. OpenStreetMap
“The Best Map in the Galaxy.”

9. It empowers people,

10. but it also disenfranchises.

11. It not enough that
"anyone" can contribute to
OpenStreetMap.

13. power to the missing

14. #changetheratio
@alyssapwright

15. street cred

16. women studies
feminist in womb| academic training 2000

17. apw217
OSM since Summer 2007

19. ART

20. tools of empathy
MIT graduate research

22. OPENGEO

24. apwright
OSM again March 2013

26. Hello World

27. The map is the journey
I

28. Community is the destination.
II

29. Who is this community?

30. interactive session

31. Team America bias
seeking: international statistics

32. % of women in US geo industry?

33. 40%Census 2000 and 2009 American Community Survey

34. female graduates from geo programs?

35. 34%National GIS Academic Program Survey 2012

36. female computer science graduates?

37. 25%National GIS Academic Program Survey 2012

38. % of women who have heard of OSM?
international study

39. 23%Stephens 2013

40. % of women speakers at this conference?
international study

41. 10%33% keynotes

42. % of women OSM contributors?
international studies

43. 3%Budhathoki et al 2010 | Stark 2011 | Lechner 2011

44. % of women in open source?
international studies

45. 1%Ghosh et al. 2002

47. How did this happen?

48. Good question.

49. “Maybe girls just don’t like

50. ice cream,

51. or computers,

52. or maps,

53. or open stuff.”
(paraphrased mansplaining)

54. “Maybe OSM

55. is a man’s field,

56. like construction work

57. or firefighting.”
(paraphrased from OSGeo)

59. (was that uncomfortable?)

60. Research suggests otherwise.

61. Inertia.
This was a community started
with a particular ideology.
Judd Atkin, 2012

62. Award Structure.
Groups of people
relate differently to
incentive and motivation.
Judd Atkin, 2012

63. Communication.
Current conversation styles
may not be accessible.
Judd Atkin, 2012

64. Active Hostility.
Wikipedia

65. Reagle, 2013
Open Source.
Few restrictions on how
people treat each creates
permission for discrimination.

66. Why should you care?

67. Not ethics.

68. The success of OSM.

70. What do we risk?

71. 01

72. Maps are biased by
the norms, traditions,
assumptions, and political
biases of the map maker.
J.B Harley 1989
01

73. play tag

74. care tag

75. tag=amenity=kindergarten
Monica Stephens 2013

76. tag=amenity=baby_hatch
Monica Stephens 2013

77. proposed feature=childcare
Monica Stephens 2013

78. Monica Stephens 2013

79. J.B Harley 1989

80. 02

81. “Open source communities
serve as models for
civic engagement.”
02
Alyssa Wright 2013

83. Open Source Transplant

84. 03

85. “The beauty of open source is
that people who dislike each
other can produce code for
the same product.”
03

86. The collective intelligence
of diversity
Lam et al 2011 | Callahan & Herring 2011

87. not only expands the reach of our maps
Lam et al 2011 | Callahan & Herring 2011
The collective intelligence
of diversity

88. but the sustainability of our tools.
Lam et al 2011 | Callahan & Herring 2011

89. In case you were sleeping:

90. Without diversity we risk
stagnation and irrelevance.

91. Like this slide.

92. Life’s a disaster!
What can we do?

93. Introducing

94. The Diversity Cocktail.

95. Our Three-Step Diet to Explosive OSM Success.

97. 01
Step 1
Stop Talking

98. 01
Step 1
Start Mediating

99. 01
Step 1
Online and Off

100. Stop the
temper
tantrums.
Start working
with those you
dislike.

101. Stop jousting
for technical
supremacy.
Start
measuring
supremacy by
teaching.

102. Stop the
condescension
to newbies.
Start from “new
to OSM” means
expert in
something else.

103. Stop the
apathy towards
engagement.
Start making
diversity central
to the OSM
mission.

104. 01
Step 2
Collect Data

105. 01
Step 2
Measure Hypotheses

106. Community is the destination.
II

107. Community is messy.

108. OSM mailing lists are messy.
So messy, I can’t even read this slide.

109. OpenThreads

110. OSM DEV
TALK OSM
TALK US
HOT OSM
Gender of Participants
100%50%0
Messages by Gender
100%50%0
Female
Male
Unknown

111. 01
Step 3
....

112. (the most explosive step yet)

113. (can you handle it?)

114. Target Women

115. Publicly.

117. Targeted outreach to women
increases overall diversity.

118. Seen it with my own eyes.

119. GNOME

120. Internship for GNOME project
10 OSS project involved
Success

121. Address women directly.
Accept non-students and non-coders.
Connect women with mentors.
Require a contribution
No pressure for really ambitious projects.
Approach

122. Etsy

123. GNOME
attracted 500% more female engineers
Success

124. GNOME
Invest
trained junior women for hiring
Partner
alliances with other organizations
Make a Public Stand
success breeds success
Approach

125. SOTM US
I just like squids.

126. What have we done
for you lately?

127. diversity-talk mailinglist
lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/diversity-talk

128. maptime
San Francisco | Portland | Cleveland | NYC
http://maptimesf.tumblr.com/

129. partnership meetings
monthly hangouts with wikipedia members
email for invite

130. wikimedia
The Wikimedia Diversity Conference
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference

131. OSM with partners
code for america | open knowledge foundation

132. research
Gender Differences in Jinotega, Nicaragua | Michael Kozuch
http://www.slideshare.net/mikekoz/gender-diff-mapping

133. azimuth
team blog supporting diversity work
email to join the planning team

134. childcare
tag added in iDeditor!
conversations with JOSM and tagging list

135. representation
candidates in OSMF and OSM-US elections
including me ;)

136. talking here

137. We’re just starting

138. Help Change the Ratio
of OpenStreetMap

139. Alyssa Wright
@alyssapwright
Thank you

140. Thank you
Art
Micah Berger
Sergi Delgado
Robert Samuelhanson
Luke Bott
Mike Mcquade
Wikimedia
Siko Bouterse
iD editor help
Tom MacWright
John Firebaugh
NYC-OSM
Initiatives
Ian Villeda
Beth Schecter
Alan McConchie
Clifford Snow
Darrell Furhriman
Manuela Schmidt
Michael Kozuch
Noel Hidalgo
#changetheratio
Rachel Sklar
SOTM
Rob Nickerson